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Marty Murray Jr.execMBA Class of ’17

Since college, Marty Murray Jr., execMBA class of 2017, has been involved in politics, whether he was serving as a member of student government at Southern Illinois University Carbondale or volunteering for candidates in St. Louis.

In August, Marty was elected St. Louis 7th Ward Committeeman. Marty’s competition? An incumbent who had held the position since Marty was in kindergarten. Lacking the name recognition and budget of his opponent, Marty’s underdog status played a big role in his campaign strategy.

Putting his statistical analysis skills to work, Marty used data to figure out how he could unseat his competition.

Marty began his campaign after he realized the St. Louis City Democratic party didn’t have solid organization. Knowing how important the political races of 2016 were, Marty knew this wasn’t a year to sit idle.

From the start of his campaign, Marty formed a strategy based on voter turnout. Using statistics, he figured out how many doors he needed to knock on in order to convert a winning number of votes.

The voter turnout approach allowed him to look historically at each individual neighborhood and allocate his time effectively.

Marty and his team of volunteers hit the pavement, knocking on doors and interacting directly with voters. The relationships Marty created going door to door would prove essential to establishing a lasting presence in the community.

By going door to door, Marty and volunteers were able to learn more about his potential constituents. Information volunteers recorded by hand was then manually inputted into an Excel spreadsheet.

Using data such as precinct voter turnout, historical trends, how his opponent had performed in the past, and a statistically sound poll of the precinct, Marty crafted a rational approach, focusing on the people he would be representing.

Taking note of age distribution in each neighborhood, he targeted younger voters through social media, and even sent handwritten letters to older voters.

Now that he’s been elected committeeman, Marty is focused on building trust and looking forward. While studying abroad with execMBA over the summer, he was inspired by sitting with members of the German Parliament and mayor of Munich, and discussing how international politics affected their country.

Marty will hold his position as 7th Ward Committeeman for the next four years. In addition to that role he was elected as Chairman of the 78th District Legislative Committee and Vice-Chair of Missouri’s 1st Congressional District.